The EHFC required FAA Course is <here>
Please read this article. We have a special obligation to keep each other safe at East Hill. "Friends do not let friends fly unsafe!" We are part of a "safety culture." As instructors especially we may accidentally hurt your feelings or risk your wrath but we have an obligation to you (and the club) of keeping us all safe in aviation!
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The EHFC required FAA Course is <here> |
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Good pilots take pride in their skills and mastery of flight procedures. The annual flight requirement at East Hill is an opportunity to sharpen up your skills in a safe and controlled environment and regain your proficiency. Pilots who wish to log this time for FAA Wings should bring the printed syllabus to their flight so the instructor performs all the required maneuvers and enters the correct endorsement in your logbook.
Transitioning from ground to flight and back in a graceful and safe manner does not get a lot of attention from pilots after they complete their initial flight training. Pilots usually are not inclined to practice landings with passengers and so their technique deteriorates. Approaches tend to get faster and less stabilized and the touchdown becomes increasingly flat. 40.3% of all General Aviation accidents occur during the landing phase of flight (where we spend 1% of our time) What seems like "playing it safe" leads to hazardous touchdowns! In a nutshell, <here> is the problem: pilots cannot land consistently well after awhile! The go-around is completely forgotten and the danger of porpoising and hard landings increases dramatically. We see some amazing sights out there on the runway!
In this last year we had three porpoising incidents, a Skyhawk damaged from a hard landing and a plane went off the runway on a touch and go.The focus or our annual training this year will be to achieve really consistent and reliably safe landings. Every pilot will demonstrate "full stall" landings and hold the nose wheel off on touchdown for at least three seconds. We also want to see safe, comfortable go-arounds in every plane you fly and some good crosswind landings. The EHFC required course this year is on the FAA site: "Take Offs, Landings and Aircraft Control" available <here> (You will need to establish a free account with outside vendor "Learning Zen" but this is a great course!) Please bring and bring in your certificate for our file.
This AOPA advisor is a good start on renewing your familiarity with the basic landing procedures and technique. The FAA also has a series of advisor publications that you will find interesting. Basic landing technique is covered in the classic FAA tutorial On Landings Part One, Part Two, and Part Three
We want every active East Hill pilot to participate in the FAA WIngs Program. You will initially need to register at http://faasafety.gov with a login and password. You will find many useful courses and references on this website that will increase your knowlege level. When you complete the anual required knowlege course, please bring in the printable certificate to the club so we can document your achievement. You can also bring a syllabus from the FAA website if you want FAA Wings credit for your annual flight training. Recurrent flight training is the pathway to safe flying. Thanks for participating and flying safely!
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| Unfortunately we have a broken plane. But, let us not lose sight of the fact that this could have been MUCH worse with an injured pilot too! What initially precipitated this damage was the failure of the flaps to retract during a normal touch and go on runway 14. This pilot became airborne with full flaps (they would not retract and it was a hot day). To his credit this pilot maintained aircraft control and did not stall but maybe experienced a bit of panic. Unfortunately, he chose to make a very tight pattern and turned base leg at about the VOR, and consequently ended up with a very little usable runway. A steep approach and very little runway (coupled with a desire to land and definitely not go-around) led directly to a high-speed porpoise landing which struck the prop and buckled the firewall. As you know, you must level off and wait to dissipate speed in a normal landing to allow a nose-high flare. Forcing a plane on the ground will usually lead to this kind of damage. FAA Landing Brochure Lessons Learned? A touch and go is a "necessary evil" in flight training to learn landings (it saves lots of time and money) but must be handled carefully (and we all get complacent and forget the risk?) Conducted properly, your plane should come almost to a stop AND you must always verify the flaps are retracted with a quick glance (we have LOTS of runway here at Ithaca) Second, be aware a Cessna WILL climb with full flaps (though not vigorously) IF you use a slower speed (you might want to practice this: DUAL ONLY) Third, stay current with your landings so you can handle contingencies: practice, practice. If your landings are becoming flat or inconsistent please get some dual. Only in a dual flight situation can we safely take you out of your comfort zone or create a real "surprise!" We all need to fly safely or we ALL will end up paying for the results. |
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Master Those Crosswinds!OK, so once we can land correctly on the main gear with the nose in the air, can we do this with a 12 knot x-wind? 70% of accidents happen while maneuvering (low and slow in the pattern) and primarily on take-off and landing when the wind is across the runway. Mastering and maintaining crosswind landing skills is essential for safety. See Budd Davisson here for a good tutorial. The FAA Safety web-site has a good course also here. There are also many good tutorials on landing in this FAA archive.
Here is a good article by Rick Durden from Aviation Safety. See this article on go-arounds the "safety net" for all pilots that is too infrequently exercised.